My Aunt and Uncle’s first date hinged on deviled eggs. I am unclear on the story and somewhat puzzled how they ended up married (going on 50-something years) because apparently, my Aunt-to-be put the deviled eggs on the bottom of the picnic basket. My Uncle, from whom I inherited my natural fussiness about such things, flipped out and pointed out that the eggs were being crushed. And yet, they got married! Before Internet-dating, you had to eat squished eggs — and like it. A simpler, happier time.

According to the food timeline blog, deviled eggs originated in Ancient Rome, along with other less important innovations such as cement and indoor plumbing. Here’s a link to a recipe, if you want to make your eggs like the Romans. Warning: It involves rancid fish guts.

Eggs from Pompeii in the British Museum

Like so many of my blog posts, there’s nothing particularly novel about my take on deviled eggs, but I do have a few things up my sleeve. I boil my eggs gently for five minutes and then leave them on the stove with the heat turned off and the lid on for another five. To quickly remove their shells, run the hot eggs under cold water. Conversely, if you have cold hard boiled eggs in the fridge, run them under warm water to remove their shells.

Tip 2: Make way more eggs that you think you will need. Unless you are a lot more dexterous than I am (and you probably are), there will be wipe outs when you remove the yolk from the whites. Wipe outs can be eaten as you go (in good news) but you will need loads of deviled eggs, so boil more than you think you need. I have never brought a single egg home from a party I brought them too — even at parties where there were multiple plates of deviled eggs.

My final tip? I use liquid mustard instead of mustard powder so you need less mayo. I like that seedy French mustard. You also don’t need salt if you use moist mustard unless you like your eggs super salty.

Slice your eggs on the long end and pop out the yolks. Mix the yolks with mayo and mustard. Put a rounded teaspoon of the mixture back into the halved whites. Garnish with capers or parsley, as desired. Dust with paprika.